Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Fischer: Being Gay Just Like Being a Bank Robber

I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed by Bryan Fischer’s reaction to Sen. Rob Portman coming out in favor of marriage equality after his son came out of the closet. Given Fischer’s usual penchant for outlandish statement, merely comparing being gay to robbing a bank seems pretty humdrum:

GOP Sen. Rob Portman has changed his mind about homosexual marriage because his son has come out as gay.

While a story like this naturally stirs our emotions with sympathy for the family, and even fear for the future of his son, we still must ask the question as to whether such a revelation should be a basis to change our collective mind about the cornerstone institution of Western Civilization. The answer to this question must surely be “No.”

Public policy should be based on reason, not emotion. If it turned out my son was a bank robber, I would not love my son any less. I might even have great sympathy for the circumstances that drove him to steal. I would come alongside him and help him in any way that was in my power. But I would not change my mind about the morality of bank robbing.

*yawn* Sorry Bryan, you’re going to have to do better than that. Why not compare them to rapists or Hitler, like you usually do? We’ve come to expect some serious crazy from you, not the merely insipid and offensive. Step up your game!

I think it’s more like if a bank robber in a male prison fell in love with a bank robber in the ladies’ prison across the river, and they tried to get the law changed to allow bank robbers to get married. Oh wait, they already can.

Yeah, I guess Portman’s plan to use his son as a human shield is working out pretty well, so far. Much of the criticism he’s receiving from the right is couched in terms of being wrongly, but somewhat understandably, overindulgent of a sinful son. It’s still criticism, but it falls far short of the verbal crucifixion he had normally suffered for his heresy, had he not connected his change of heart to his son’s coming-out, which happened 2 years ago.

Since when is preventing gay people from getting married the “cornerstone institution of Western Civilization”? [Fischer’s capitalization] I would have thought it would be something like individual freedom or democratic decision-making or the inherent rights of human beings.

In Bobby Fischer’s world, bankers are the unfairly maligned oppressed class. His Robin Hood tale is a tragic account of a heroic sheriff vain attempt to hold freeloaders to account and stem the moral decay of a just social order. He doesn’t understand the depths of depravity to which we have already sunk, to the point of actually romanticizing bank robbers as heroes (think Bobbie and Clyde).